Dr Jason T Maynes Receives CIHR Funding for Research on Drug Cardiac Toxicity

Principal Investigator Dr. Jason T. Maynes, PhD/MD (Director of Research for Anesthesia and Pain Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children) and his collaborator, Dr. Yu Sun (Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto), have received a Canadian Institutes of Health and Research (CIHR) Collaborative Health Research Grant for their research on the effects of pharmaceuticals on cardiac cells. The research is based on the development of new methods that quantify cardiac/cardiomyocyte function for the pre-clinical prediction of drug cardiac toxicity and to discover new therapies for heart failure. Their technology, based on personalized stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes grown on carbon nanotubes, will provide the first methodology capable of predicting drug action on cells taken from individual patients, facilitating the translation of pharmaceuticals from discovery to patient care. 

CIHR Funding seeks to fund research that will create new scientific knowledge to improve health and strengthen the health care system for the benefit of Canadians. Given the potential for individual patients to experience varied and unwanted side effects with any number of pharmaceuticals, such research is an important step in establishing protocols to develop personalized care that maximizes the benefits and reduces the risks of all medications for each patient. With over $700,000 in funding over the next three years, Dr. Maynes seeks to make important breakthroughs in creating such personalized care protocols. “We hope to provide both toxicity and therapy testing, making sure each patient gets the right drug at the right time for their disease, avoiding trial-and-error and off-target heart damage. To do this, the genetic background of each patient must be considered, which is where the stem cell-derived tissue is advantageous,” says Dr. Maynes.